This invention relates to a suture fabricated from syndiotactic polypropylene and to a process for its manufacture.
Sutures fabricated from polypropylene homopolymers and copolymers and from polymer blends containing polypropylene are disclosed in, among others, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,630,205, 4,621,638 and 4,911,165 (sutures obtained by the melt extrusion of isotactic polypropylene), U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,520,822 and 4,620,542 (sutures made from ethylenepropylene copolymers) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,264 (sutures made from blends of polypropylene and linear low density polyethylene).
Syndiotactic polypropylenes, blends containing these resins and fibers produced from the resins are known, e.g., from U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,258,455, 3,268,627, 3,305,538, 3,364,190, 4,892,851 and 5,132,381. U.S. Pat. No. 3,511,824 discloses a monofilament manufactured from an isotactic-randiotactic polypropylene defined therein as a macromolecular combination of short length isotactic, syndiotactic and heterotactic polypropylene which is completely soluble in diethyl ether.